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Former Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (left) meets with Arnaud de Baecque, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Myanmar, in Naypyidaw, Myanmar on the 3rd (local time). / AFP-Yonhap

Former Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (81), detained since the military coup, met with a representative from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the 3rd (local time).

According to Reuters on the 4th (local time), this marks the first time an outside organization's direct check on Suu Kyi's condition has been made public since she was detained in the February 2021 military coup.

Myanmar's presidential office information team also announced via Telegram that Suu Kyi met that day in the capital, Naypyidaw, with Arnaud de Baecque, head of the ICRC's Myanmar delegation, releasing four photos of the meeting.

One of the four released photos shows Suu Kyi, dressed in traditional attire, standing without assistance and shaking hands with de Baecque. In another photo, the two are seated in a wood-paneled room furnished only with two chairs and a desk. A photo showing the interior of what appears to be her residence, with a clothes rack and storage boxes in the background, captures Suu Kyi cutting a birthday cake, while a fourth photo shows a cake reading, "Happy Birthday Aunty Suu, June 19, 2026."

The ICRC said in a statement that the visit met its own standards and procedures for visiting people deprived of their freedom, adding that this included the opportunity to speak with Aung San Suu Kyi alone.

Suu Kyi's son, Kim Aris, told Reuters that while the ICRC was not able to bring a doctor to examine his mother, she appeared healthy and in good spirits. Speaking from London, he said, "For the first time in a long while, I have independent evidence that my mother is actually alive," calling it "extremely meaningful." Aris said he remains cautious but hopes he may one day be able to speak with his mother by phone, and urged governments around the world to keep pressing Myanmar to release her and other political prisoners.

Information about Suu Kyi has reached even her family only in fragments. Aris told Reuters in December that all he had received was secondhand information about his mother's heart, bone, and gum conditions, and that he had been unable to contact her directly for years. Since her detention, her whereabouts and health status have been difficult to confirm, and although regional countries that have excluded Myanmar's military leadership from summits have called for access to her, no foreign leader or envoy has met with her publicly.

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Photo released by Myanmar's presidential office information team on the 3rd (local time), showing former Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi cutting a birthday cake. / AFP-Yonhap

The UN also took note of the meeting. UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said at a briefing in New York that the UN welcomes this development and repeats its call for the prompt and unconditional release of all those arbitrarily detained, calling it a fundamental step toward creating conditions for a credible and transparent political process. Julie Bishop, the UN's special envoy for Myanmar, has repeatedly called for independent, verifiable reporting on Suu Kyi's condition.

Suu Kyi was convicted in closed-door trials held after the military coup on charges including corruption, incitement of election fraud, and violation of the state secrets law, and was sentenced to 33 years in prison. Her sentence was later reduced, leaving 18 years remaining.

Her custody status changed in April. After former junta leader Min Aung Hlaing became president through a military-led election, Suu Kyi was moved to house arrest in late April. Myanmar's military-backed government has repeatedly claimed that Suu Kyi is "in good health," but international pressure demanding independent verification has grown. Following the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting last month, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow also called for access to be granted to Suu Kyi. ASEAN has excluded Myanmar's leadership from major meetings over its delays in implementing the bloc's peace roadmap.

                                                                                                            Jeong Ri-na